Stephen Hawking’s wheelchair is up for sale

What do you do when a famous wheelchair is now sadly no longer occupied — put it up for sale to raise money for charity.

That’s what will happen next week when one of Professor Hawking’s iconic wheelchairs, will be sold to benefit the Stephen Hawking Foundation and the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

The lots featured in a Christie’s online sale range from the offprints (Professor Hawking’s own printed copies) of his most important papers, including his seminal ‘Black Hole Explosions’ of 1974, to a selection of his medals and awards, a copy of his best-selling ‘A Brief History of Time’ (1988) signed with a thumbprint, a bomber jacket, and the script for one of his appearances on The Simpsons.

The items are also on view in Christie’s London, King Street until next Tuesday, 6th November. It’s open Mon-Fri 9:30am to 4:30pm

Your correspondent would have been very tempted by one item which is sort of affordable in an extravagant spending sort of way — one of the invites from his famous time travel dinner party, which I noted recently featured in his memorial service. Sadly, the price is already as far away from affordable as the black holes the Professor famously studied.

The wheelchair, used by Professor Hawking in the 1980s and 1990s had been expected to sell for a more wallet damaging £15,000, but is already at £20,000 and climbing.